Christmas in the Light of Psalm 22

We know from all four gospels that the twenty second Psalm was deeply intertwined with the fate of Jesus, so deeply intertwined that, according to Matthew and Mark, Jesus himself took it upon his lips as he died to express his trust in God, even as he was nailed to the Cross.

Yes, Jesus was not claiming that he had actually been separated from God on the Cross, but, rather, that God's help was not evident to him, that he was going through dryness, or, rather, the greatest of all aridity, the greatest of all feelings of abandonment ever known to man. But all this he did in trust to God. If Psalm 22 expressed the plight of Jesus in moving terms, it also expressed his belief in his ultimate vindication by God with the greatest confidence.

You who fear the LORD, praise him!
all you sons of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you sons of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted;
and he has not hid his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.

If all of this seems to have only a slight connection with Christmas, it may be because we haven't thought it through yet with sufficient clarity. What or who was on Jesus' mind on the Cross as he meditated on the twenty second Psalm? On the one hand, we might take our cue from the very end of that Psalm.

All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him. (Ps. 22:27)

Certainly, Jesus meant by his death to draw all nations to worship the God of Israel. "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." (Jn 12:32) We see this solicitude for the right ordering of the world in the repentance of the Good Thief. Actually, the Good Thief was not a thief, but a revolutionary (Gk. lestes), meaning that he was in the business of bringing about the freedom of Israel from the Roman oppressors by force. In receiving the repentance of the Good Thief, Jesus was showing that conversion of the Gentile nations to the God of Israel would now take the form of following his way of loving service, of self-giving, and not the way of violent revolution against Rome.

But if Jesus, meditating on and acting in accordance with Ps. 22, looked forward to the Gentile nations coming to the worship of the God of Israel, he must also have looked backward to the events of Christmas.

Yet thou art he who took me from the womb;
thou didst keep me safe upon my mother's breasts.
Upon thee was I cast from my birth,
and since my mother bore me thou hast been my God. (Ps. 22:9-10)

Yes, in the mysterious providence of God, the Mother of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, played a special role. In meditating upon Ps. 22, Jesus must have seen his holy mother as the special locus of God's activity. It was her womb from which God took him. It was on her breasts that God kept Jesus safe. It was by the nourishment provided from her breasts that God made him grow. From his very birth, he must have thought, he was dedicated to God, a reference not only to his own willful obedience to the Father, but to that of his Mother, who brought him to the Temple to be circumcised on the eighth day, fully identifying him with God's covenant people, Israel.

Jesus, although greater than a prophet, was a prophet, and prophets in Israel used symbolic actions to express the message that God had given them for Israel. If, indeed, Jesus was meditating on God's past faithfulness to him through his Mother, and if Jesus was meditating on and enacting the new future, in which Jew and Gentile alike would share in God's kingdom, it only makes sense to see Jesus as intentionally connecting his other great action from the Cross with these two themes. God, who had been faithful to him in the past through his Mother, would be faithful to him again through his Mother, by bringing, through her, many sons to glory (c.f. Heb 2:10). Thus, acting in the mode of a prophet, he acted in the following way:

When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"
Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (Jn. 19:26-27)

The Psalmist, reflecting on God's action through his mother, recalled God's faithfulness and trusted in God's ultimate vindication. Jesus, reflecting on God's action through his Mother, recalled God's faithfulness and trusted in God's ultimate vindication; trusted in it so much that he prophetically enacted it by setting up a new spiritual relationship between Mary and John, who in this case, symbolizes all the disciples of Jesus (c.f. Raymond E. Brown, The Anchor Bible vol. 29, Pp. XCIV-XCV). And so, from the Cross, Jesus gave us his Mother to be the mother of all his beloved disciples; he gave us his Mother as our Mother. The events of Christmas, in which God's faithfulness to Mary and to Jesus are intertwined, lead us to the events of Easter and Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:14), in which God's faithfulness to Jesus and to Mary are once again intertwined. God, who acted once through Mary to bring Jesus into the world, will act again through Mary to bring Jesus into the lives of his disciples, and thus into the world.

Prepare to Meet Your Author, or the Virtue of Hope

“We speak about how things ought to be or what is not going well and ‘we do not start from the affirmation that Christ has won the victory.’ To say that Christ has won, that Christ has risen, signifies that the meaning of my life and of the world is present, already present, and time is the profound and mysterious working of its manifestation.”

Luigi Giussani

One of the major difficulties of starting out life on one’s own is finding a direction. Seemingly endless effort has been put into helping young adults find the “what” and “how” of their life’s path, but it is often the process of actually striving for these goals that presents the true challenge. The journey of a thousand miles may start with a single step, but it is frequently the middle steps that are the most difficult. Soon enough, a fundamental question poses itself: “Why and how should I continue? What kind of story am I living in? Will this story have a happy ending?”

In a good story, we know that the heroes will win out in the end even if the middle has them in dire straits. Their suffering and striving, even their death, will be worthwhile because the story will have been brought to an appropriate and happy conclusion, a conclusion that expresses the mind of its author. Christian faith tells us that life is a story whose Author is a good and almighty God. The central theme of this story is the love of this God for his whole creation expressed in Jesus Christ. It is this love that forms the foundation for the virtue of hope.

Hope is one of the most essential virtues for the young adult. It is ultimately hope that provides the answer to the questions of why and how to go on in life and the strength to take the steps on the journey. Scripture compares hope to an anchor that keeps man moored in communion with God (Heb 6:19-20). It was hope that allowed Pope John Paul II to endure his illness with grace, it was hope that caused Bl. Mother Teresa to seek out the dying of Calcutta, and it was hope that impelled Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassatti, the privileged son of one of Italy’s richest families, to pour himself out in daily service of the sick and poor. This same hope can give each and every Christian the strength to persevere in love amidst life’s trials and uncertainties.

Hope is ultimately grounded in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As St. Peter said, “By [God’s] great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Pet 1:3) But why do Christ’s death and resurrection give us hope? It is not merely that Christ came back from the dead, but that his death and resurrection conquered death once and for all. Others have come back from death by medicine or miracle, but all these died once again. ”Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” (Rom 6:9) The foundation of Christian hope is that the Christian, having “been united with Christ in a death like his,” will also be “united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom 6:5) With God’s help, the story will come to an appropriate and happy conclusion.

Thus, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ answer the question: “What kind of story are we living in?” In Christ’s death and resurrection, we meet the Author of Life. The Author of Life addresses us, saying “I have seen the affliction of my people… and have heard their cry… I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them.” (Ex 3:7-8) By showing them that Love is the Author of the universe’s story, Christ’s death and resurrection give Christians the hope to take all the steps on the journey toward eternal life. Each small act formed by this hope builds the virtue of hope, allowing the Christian to become, like John Paul II, Mother Teresa, and Pier Giorgio, a beacon of hope to the world.

A Note for the Feast of Christ the King: Five Things You Should Know About the Kingdom of God

A Note for the Feast of Christ the King

Today, the Church celebrates our Lord Jesus Christ the King. So, I give you, five things you should know about the Kingdom of God:

1) The Kingdom of God was the main focus of Jesus' ministry

The Gospel writers make it plain that bringing the Kingdom of God was the main focus of Jesus' ministry. When Matthew (Matt 4:17), Mark (Mark 1:15), and Luke (Luke 8:1) describe Jesus' preaching, it is the kingdom of God that they point out as his distinctive focus. It was not simply his teaching that Jesus describes in terms of the Kingdom of God, but his ministry of healing and exorcism as well. Jesus famous sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth is couched in classic Kingdom of God language, drawing from the prophecies of Isaiah 61 about the restoration of Israel. In essence, Jesus is saying, my ministry of healing is what the restoration of Israel looks like. When Israel is restored, as Isaiah had foretold, healing will flow from her to the Gentile nations.

When the Pharisees and scribes challenge Jesus, saying that it is by the power of Be-el'zebul that he casts out demons, he wastes no time in laying out his actual agenda and the source of his power. It is wrong, he tells them, to suppose that Be-el'zebul is so foolish as to work against himself. Any kingdom divided against itself will fall. No, he says, Israel's God is the source of his power and his agenda is to bring about the kingdom of God. "If it is by the finger of God, the Holy Spirit, that I cast out demons, he tells them, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you." He then describes precisely what he is doing in casting out demons. "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil." It is clear here that Jesus is referring to himself as the "stronger man." Jesus is saying that his practice of casting out demons is his way of bringing out the kingdom of God (notice how he uses political and military imagery, imagery of palaces, armor, and spoil, to describe what he is doing).

John's Gospel doesn't show Jesus performing exorcisms during his ministry itself, not because John denies the tradition of Jesus being an exorcist, but because he wants to point the way toward the ultimate exorcism, which Jesus performed on the Cross. "Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." (John 12:31-32) For earlier generations of scholars, born and bred on the assumption that John's gospel was an essentially Greek or even a Gnostic work, it could be thought that John was toning down the Kingdom of God theology of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But, the Jewish background of much of John's gospel having been brought to our attention, the overtones of Kingdom of God theology in this passage, a passage that is set at the very narrative spine that summarizes the first half of John's gospel and lays the groundwork for the second part, are so loud as to be deafening! John's Kingdom of God theology is, in fact, in perfect harmony with that of the Synoptics. "The reason the Son of God appeared," as John would say in one of his epistles, "was to destroy the devil's work." (1 John 3:8) Jesus is bringing in the Kingdom of God by overcoming the Devil and his work.

2) The Kingdom of God wasn't a new concept invented by Jesus or the Church; it already had a history of usage in Judaism

If Kingdom of God was a meaningless concept in first century Judaism, no one would have known what Jesus was talking about when he spoke about it. The idea of Kingdom of God takes its roots in the Pentateuch. During Abraham's life, God promised him that he and Sarah would have kings among their descendents. Exodus makes it clear that God's ultimate purpose for Israel is to be a kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:6). The focal point of the Kingdom of God imagery in the Old Testament is the dynasty of David, which the Old Testament twice refers to as the "kingdom of the Lord." (1 Chr 28:5, 2 Chr 13:8) The Psalms are saturated with celebration of this Kingdom of God. The Davidic king is the anointed of the Lord (Ps. 2:2, Ps. 18:50, Ps. 20:6, etc.). He is to "have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!" (Ps. 72:8) He would triumph over his enemies and God would make his throne perpetual (Ps. 89:19-29).

The end of the Old Testament throws quite a chink in this vision: the question of the meaning of Israel's exile and of the continued pagan domination over Israel. Therefore, the problem going through the head of the people who heard Jesus talk about the kingdom of God was this. During the Exile, the prophets had proclaimed the restoration of God's kingdom. Such passages foresee the Kingdom of God as meaning the return of Israel's tribes from Exile, the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, freedom of Israel from pagan dominion, and some form of victory over the Gentile nations, with them alternately being defeated or coming to Israel and Jerusalem for instruction.

So the real question that Jesus would have come up against in his preaching was this: given these promises of God to Israel and the house of David, why are the pagans still in control and (for at least some Jews) why is the current Temple system corrupt? And, if you are claiming that God is restoring his kingdom in you, if you are claiming that you are the new Davidic king, what are you going to do about it?

3) The teaching of Christ was a kingdom manifesto

To this question, Jesus gave an answer that was clear enough to those who had ears to hear, but veiled enough not to draw him into conflict prematurely or for the wrong reasons. The teaching of Jesus was nothing less than a Kingdom manifesto. The Gospels put on the lips of Jesus the admonition: "Repent and believe the gospel." We in the West routinely hear this as a call to leave our personal sins and believe in the forgiveness and new life that Jesus gives us, and rightly so. But Jesus hearers would have heard this as part of the wider story of God and Israel. A great example of how this would have sounded in the first century is given by N.T. Wright, who speaks about a passage where Josephus is trying to get a revolutionary to stop being a revolutionary and move over to Josephus' way of thinking about Israel and Rome. Josephus literally told the revolutionary to "metanoesein kai pistos emoi genesesthai" (Repent and believe in me), language shockingly similar to the language of Jesus. The point is that Jesus isn't only talking about individual repentance from sins, but that he is also talking about realigning Israel around himself and his distinctive way of being Israel.

Reading the Sermon on the Mount like this makes it pop off the page. Jesus' message was clear. It is applicable today, but it was specifically targeted to the people of Jesus' day. When Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth," (Mt 5:5) he was evoking the promise made to David of a worldwide kingdom. When he said, "blessed are the merciful" and "blessed are the peacemakers" (Mt. 5:7, 9) he wasn't just giving general advice about morals, though he would no doubt say that such things are generally applicable, he was telling the people of his day what it would look like to realign Israel around himself. His vision for Israel was radically different from that of those whose nascent zeal would lead to the destruction of the Temple in 70AD during the Jewish war.

Indeed, Jesus was very clear about what it would mean to follow his new way of being Israel. "Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock." (Mt. 7:24-25) Jesus wasn't just talking about good building principles here; he was specifically talking about the Temple. The Jerusalem Temple itself was built on a large rock called the Foundation Stone, "the rock." Those who follow Jesus' words will have a Temple that is truly secure. In contrast, those who ignore Jesus' words about the true way to be Israel are heading for destruction. "Every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it." (Mt. 7:26-27) This might well be labeled Jesus' first prediction of the destruction of the Temple. It is true that Jesus' words don't only mean that we ought to give up first century revolutionary schemes and follow him, we are called to give up all ways of salvation, then and now, that aren't founded around Jesus and his new kingdom of God way of life.

Jesus develops what this new way of living entails in the Sermon on the Mount and in his parables, but there are two passages in particular that I think truly draw out the radically new nature of this kingdom in relation to all other kingdoms. The first is John 18:33-38.

Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus, and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"

Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?"

Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me; what have you done?"

Jesus answered, "My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews;

but my kingship is not from the world."

Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice."

Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

There are two things to note about this passage. First, as N.T. Wright notes, the passage which the RSV translates "my kingship is not of this world" is better translated, "my kingdom is not from this world." That is to say, it is not some kind of heaven with clouds and harps, but it is firmly set in the Jewish expectation of a new heavens and a new earth, the affirmation of the goodness of creation. Jesus' kingdom is not from this world, because it does not operate like the kingdoms of this world do, kingdoms which expand by resort to blows. Jesus' kingdom expands by witnessing to the truth. The kingdoms of this world often suppress the truth because it is a threat to their power. If the truth were told, they theorize, they would no longer rule the world because their injustices would be laid bare. So they blatantly lie in order to support their power. But the truth isn't a threat to Jesus' kingdom in this way, because bearing witness to the truth is the very purpose for which Jesus came.

This is also reflected in the other passage I want to point out, Luke 22:25-30, which discusses the nature of power in the kingdom Jesus is setting up.

And he said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors.

But not so with you; rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.

For which is the greater, one who sits at table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at table? But I am among you as one who serves.

"You are those who have continued with me in my trials;

and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom,

that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

There are many things that we might draw out of this rich passage, but here is the principle one. Jesus is giving the Apostles a kingdom, but it is not going to work like the kingdoms of this world, which fight back and forth over power. No, the chief persons in this kingdom should be marked precisely by service to others. There ought not to be power struggles and bickering in the kingdom, because those who serve are already looking out for the interests of others in the kingdom, so there is no need for violence or deception.

Needless to say, where Jesus' followers have lived out this vision of kingdom living, the fruits of the kingdom have already become evident in this age. One thinks immediately of Mother Teresa, of her singlehearted devotion to Jesus and her singlehearted devotion to the poor. Or, more locally to me, one only need think of the many elderly Mennonite ladies who give themselves in service every week to support Mennonite Central Committee. Where this vision of kingdom living has been ignored or marginalized, there has been great trouble. One need only think here of certain Medieval popes, who made a mockery of their title as "servant of the servants of God" or of John Calvin's Geneva, whose terrifying rule has thankfully not been often repeated.

4) Part of the point of the Cross and Resurrection was to inaugurate the Kingdom of God

One ancient version of Psalm 96:10 reads, "The Lord has reigned from a tree." This is the kind of union between Christian praxis and Christ's cross that we ought to remind ourselves of daily. The kingship that the Lord has given us will often seem paradoxical. Love will involve suffering, giving up of our supposed rights, perhaps even suffering to the point of death. But love will win out, love is already winning out, indeed, love has already won, even though its victory is paradoxical.

Of course, anyone can see that triumphing in dying is a paradoxical thing. But the particular kind of triumph that Jesus had in mind is absolutely mind blowing. You see, Jesus claimed both by words and by actions to be the Messiah (My theologically astute readers will be aware, as I am, that saying this leaves me wide open to attack on several fronts. Rest assured, I am not making this claim baldly, but neither is this post the time or place to argue out the complex theological and hermeneutical issues involved in this). But, there was a problem. Messiahs who died were false messiahs! And false messiahs most often died, in Roman times, on crosses. Everyone knew this. "We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel," the two men on the road to Emmaus said to Jesus, and thus most strongly implied that, of course, since he died at the hands of the Romans, that hope was all over now. "Yes," they might have continued, "Romans always use crosses to oppress those whom they desire to rule over. Israel is still under Roman oppression, and this Jesus fellow was most certainly not the Messiah."

But Jesus wanted to redirect their attention. There was a deeper problem, a stronger enemy, than Rome. "God did not make death," the book of Wisdom tells us, "and he does not delight in the death of the living... God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil's envy death entered the world." (Wis 1:13, 2:23-24) Yes, Roman oppression, all oppression, uses death as its ultimate weapon. If Jesus had brought a military salvation, oppression might still have taken the day again in the future. No, Jesus would pull up the weed of death by its very root. He himself would die, but without bitterness, without enmity, without unforgiveness; with forgiveness, with love, with obedience. He would thus undo sin, and by undoing sin, undo death itself. "Death itself," as C.S. Lewis said, "would start working backward."

Yes, (and again, I owe this point, as I owe so much else in this post, to N.T. Wright), the Cross and the Kingdom are intimately tied. Jesus went to his death by way of fulfilling the kingdom manifesto that he himself had laid out in his ministry. The words that the Apostle Peter uses to describe Jesus death might equally well summarize the Sermon on the Mount: "[Christ] committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly." (1 Peter 2:22-23) Yes, Jesus summarized the Sermon on the Mount in his person, and he gave the fullest expression of his person on the Cross. "The Lord has reigned from a tree."

The Resurrection then, as many commentators have pointed out, is God's endorsement of Jesus' self expression, his self gift made on the Cross. This was certainly the interpretation that Paul was giving to it. Jesus, Paul said, was "designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead." (Rom 1:4) We must be clear on what this meant in first century parlance: "Son of God" was a messianic title; as in the Old Testament, the son of David was the son of God. Yes, "Son of God" certainly had a deeper meaning than merely messiahship to Paul, but one thing he was certainly saying was Jesus was declared to be Israel's messiah, the "son of God," by his resurrection from the dead. It was also this meaning that Luke and Peter gave to the Resurrection. "This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this [speaking in tongues in the Holy Spirit] which you see and hear. Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Messiah" (Acts 2:32-33, 36).

5) The Kingdom of God is already here, but it can be difficult to see

This leads us to our conclusion: Jesus is already reigning as king. As a culture, we are so used to employing the phrase "till kingdom come" to mean an event or a place far off in time or space, that we do not hear the word "kingdom" as we ought to hear it. Jesus is already reigning over earth from heaven. As he himself said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Mt. 28:18) It is true, of course, that the fullness of the kingdom of God is not yet present. "Now in putting everything in subjection to [Jesus], [God] left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him." (Heb 2:8) Yes, we wait for the second coming of Christ when all the promises will be definitively fulfilled. "According to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." (2 Pet 3:13). Yes, we wait for that day when that day when Jesus Christ "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself." (Phil 3:21). But we wait in hope, because that fullness is already present in the risen Jesus, who dwells body and soul at the right hand of God. It is also present, Tradition tells us, in the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was assumed body and soul into heaven.

So, yes, the kingdom of God is already here, although we have yet to see its fullness. The Second Vatican Council calls the Church "the kingdom of Christ now present in mystery." (Lumen Gentium 3) But we ought to have known it would be this way. Jesus himself told us that the kingdom would be like leaven which leavens the whole lump of dough, like a mustard seed which is the smallest seed but grows to become a gigantic tree. Jesus told us that our participation in his kingdom in this age was to be fraught with peril and persecution. "Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake." (Matt 5:10) Paul told us this too. "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." (Acts 14:22)

So what must we do? We must live out the Kingdom way of Jesus in the present; We must live out his Kingdom manifesto as a part of the renewed people of God. We must live, insofar as we can, the life of the age to come in the present. And how to do this? We must be "clothed with power from on high" by receiving the Holy Spirit (Lk 24: 49) We must believe and be baptized (Jn 3:5, 16). We must cling to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the Eucharistic bread and the prayers. (c.f. Acts 2:42). That is to say, we must commit ourselves to truly living out Jesus' Kingdom message as a part of his Church.